A Gift from the Gods (are you an angel or a demon?)
by Someone aka Me
Summary: Ekrizdis, and how he started on Azkaban, before it was Azkaban at all. It doesn't start with torture. It starts with a lonely man. The torture comes later. :: M for violence.


Assignment 11: Notable Witches EC: Write about what notable horrors Ekrizdis could have performed at Azkaban, or what evidence could have been discovered after the island was located.

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I blame Bex. I also thank Bex.

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* * *

At first, he just wants to be alone.

He wants to be left alone. He wants his parents to stop asking when he's going to give them beautiful babies to carry on the family name. He wants his wife to stop crying in the bathroom over negative pregnancy spells.

He's tired of being a disappointment.

He finds the island mostly by accident. He's gone on a flight just to get away for awhile. He loves the feeling of soaring out in the air over the open ocean, free and alone, just him and the breeze.

And there's the island. It's deserted, small, and clear.

It's the perfect place to be alone.

…

The first time, it is an accident.

He wards the island heavily, making it his private space. Making it a space no one can ever find him.

But then.

Then the storm clouds roll in on the wind. Then a Muggle ship crash lands on his island and he sits in his small stone fortress and listens to them _scream_ and something inside of him that's been dead for a long time comes _alive_.

Because he can listen to the screaming and he can forget.

He moves to the roof of his tiny fortress and watches the ship crash apart on the rocks. He watches the Muggles stare in confusion as they crash on an island they cannot see. He watches the tides batter them into the rocks, watches them struggle to swim, watches one manage to stumble up a shore he cannot see, hit the Muggle repelling wards, and fall to his knees, losing all hope.

And, for the first time in a long time, Ekrizdis smiles.

…

The Muggle on the shore doesn't go away.

The rest of them that wash up onto his shores are already dead, bodies swollen from the salt water.

But the one man is still alive, staring at the sky.

Ekrizdis can't stop watching him breathe. .

He can't stop wondering what it feels like. What the Muggle is thinking about.

He makes his way out of his fortress and through the Muggle-repelling wards, stopping beside the man.

The man stares at him in awe, taking in Ekrizdis' robes, his drawn wand.

"Are you an angel?" the man asks.

Ekrizdis grins, sharp and dangerous.

"Quite the opposite," he says. And then he levitates the man into his fortress.

…

At first, he just pins the man to a table with a spell and watches from the shadows.

"Please," says the man, his voice growing hoarse as he begs. "Please."

His pleading tapers off over the course of an hour. Ekrizdis finds himself disappointed that he can no longer hear the desperation in his voice.

He steps out of the shadows, and the man's eyes fix on him in terror.

"Why are you doing this?" he asks, anger and agony in equal parts, voice scraping up his drying throat.

Ekrizdis tips his head, looking at him. In truth, he doesn't know. But he _wants_ to. He wants to hear the screaming again. He wants to hear this Muggle scream until his throat cracks, until he can scream no longer. He wants it.

He wants it, because he thinks it will make him forget.

He wants it, because he _can_.

So he doesn't answer. Instead, he pulls out his wand, holding it aloft. He contemplates.

He decides to start simply.

"Diffindo!"

A cut opens on the man's bare arm, and he screams. Ekrizdis strokes his arm gently, watching the blood come away on his fingers, watching the man twist away from his hand.

Ekrizdis _smiles_.

…

And at first, he tells himself that they are a gift.

They crash on his island. He does not ask for them. They are a _gift_. It's _destiny_.

He takes the gift, and he makes the most of it.

The first time he casts the Cruciatus curse, he feels the hum of the forbidden in his veins and it feels exhilarating. And he listens to the Muggle woman scream and scream and scream.

She screams, and his curses get stronger. And stronger.

Her voice gives out, and Ekrizdis knows _joy_.

…

He expands his fortress. He learns how to keep them _alive_ on his tables, alive and screaming for weeks. When their voices give out, their bodies scream for them, writhing on the table.

His wife begins to ask him where he spends his time. Ekrizdis does not answer her. He does not care.

He spends more and more time in his fortress. He does not want to miss a gift granted to him. No longer does he let them die in the waves. That would be a waste.

But then a boat passes near his island but does not crash and even though his fortress is full he is _angry_ because that boat should have been his and he feels that it has been taken from him.

He pulls out his wand, fixes his mind on the man steering that boat, and says, "Imperio."

And at his command, the boat turns around and crashes on his shore. He scoops the struggling Muggles out of the sea like a benevolent angel — for this is what they think of him at first.

And then he expands his fortress and adds more cells with more tables and he pins them down and they call him _devil_ instead.

He likes that name better.

…

He feels that he knows them.

He feels that he knows these filthy Muggles because he peels them apart and inspects them from the insides. He likes to play with which organs these Muggles can live without.

Not many.

But now he is _very_ good at peeling their skin from their bones and watching their still-beating hearts throb in their chest.

It makes him feel more alive than ever.

…

The Dementors? The Dementors are an accident.

* * *

Writing Month: 980

Dragons: 980

Seasonal: Days of the Year:Collect Rocks Day: Write about someone with an unusual hobby / Summer Prompts: (word) Ocean / Element: (quote) "From the little spark may burst a mighty flame." - Dante / Shay's Musical Challenge: 1776 - write about someone no one likes. / Gryffindor Themed Prompts: Passionate / Star Chart: Mars at Opposition - (emotion) Anger

World Cup: 18th June - **Belgium** vs Panama - 16:00 - Genre: Horror

Character App: 26. (location) Azkaban / Disney: T1: Guilt - Alternatively, write about someone trying to run away from their problems. / Showtime: 9. Everybody Say Yeah - (word) Destiny / Amber's Attic: 13. Habanero: Write about someone who thinks they're better than someone else. / Buttons: W4: filthy / Lyric Alley: 16. That now are bursting at the seams / Lo's Lowdown: C11: Governor Kodos - write about a genocide.

Faerie Day: Air Faerie: Wind; Freedom; Clouds; Flying; Soaring; Air; Gentle; Open; Breeze; Breathe

Film Festival: 10. Setting - Jail/Holding cell

Sherlock: Spell: Imperio

Chocolate Frogs: 9. (Gold): Ekrizdis: write about Ekrizdis

Insane House: Trait - Insane


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